title: Molecular characterization of hepatitis A virus isolated from acute infections in Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatitis A virus is a global public health problem, especially in developing countries, and the most common cause of hepatitis in childhood. Hepatitis A virus is a single- stranded positive RNA virus subdivided to 6 genotypes (3 human,3 simian). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalent genotype in Turkey using sera of acute hepatitis A virus-infected patients from different geographical regions of the country.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sera of 137 patients with acute hepatitis A virus from different geographical regions were collected for phylogenetic analysis. The VP1-2A region of the hepatitis A virus genome was amplified by real-time-polymerase chain reaction in 76 patients where possible. Amplified polymerase chain reaction fragments were sequenced, and phylogenetic analysis was done together with other reference hepatitis A virus sequences obtained from GenBank database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the VP1-2A junction of hepatitis A virus showed that the most prevalent genotype in Turkey is IB (100%). Comparison of Turkish isolates and reference sequences of genotype IB showed a similarity of 94.9%. The same comparison was done between Turkish isolates and reference hepatitis A virus genotype IB and HM175, and it was found that similarity between them ranged from 93.0-95.9%. When Turkish isolates were compared according to Mean Percentage Nucleotide Distance analysis, similarity ranged between 95.3%-100%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Phylogenetic analysis pointed out that all Turkish isolates belong to genotype IB. Sequence analysis is a useful tool in revealing hepatitis A outbreaks, and allows us to detect and distinguish the presence of epidemic and small outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Turkey Yüksek İhtisas Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bedia
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dınç
authors.forename: Duygu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koyuncu
authors.forename: Senem Ceren
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Karatayli
authors.forename: Elife
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berk
authors.forename: Ersin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karatayli
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parlak
authors.forename: Inci
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Çelık
authors.forename: Miray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akgüç
authors.forename: Rüçhan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sertöz
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berktaş
authors.forename: Gülendam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bozdayi
authors.forename: A Mithat
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bozdayi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D019353:Endemic Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D017957:Hepatitis A Virus, Human / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies; D007075:Immunoglobulin M